Polyglot (book)

A polyglot is a book that contains side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the Hebrew and Greek originals are exhibited along with historical translations. Polyglots are useful for studying the history of the text and its interpretation.

The first enterprise of this kind is the famous Hexapla of Origen of Alexandria, in which the Old Testament Scriptures were written in six parallel columns, the first containing the Hebrew text, the second a transliteration of this in Greek letters, the third and fourth the Greek translations by Aquila of Sinope and by Symmachus the Ebionite, the fifth the Septuagint version as revised by Origen, and the sixth the translation by Theodotion. However, as only two languages, Hebrew and Greek, were employed, the work should perhaps be called a diglot rather than a polyglot in the usual sense.

After the invention of printing and the revival of philological studies, polyglots became a favourite means of advancing the knowledge of Middle Eastern languages, for which no good references were available, as well as for the study of Scripture.

The series began with the Complutensian printed by Axnaldus Guilielmus de Brocario at the expense of Cardinal Ximenes at the university at Alcalá de Henares (Complutum). The first volume of this, containing the New Testament in Greek and Latin, was completed on January 10, 1514. In vols. ii.−v. (finished on July 10, 1517), the Hebrew text of the Old Testament was printed in the first column of each page, followed by the Latin Vulgate and then by the Septuagint version with an interlinear Latin translation. Below these stood the Chaldee, again with a Latin translation. The sixth volume containing an appendix is dated 1515, but the work did not receive the papal sanction until March 1520, and was apparently not issued until 1522. The chief editors were Juan de Vergara, López de Zúñiga (Stunica), Hernán Núñez (Pincianus), Antonio de Nebrija (Nebrissensis), and Demetrius Ducas.

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